Get Back Up Again
by Misty7books
Summary: Marinette had become increasingly stressed with each passing day. She then had found a new way of releasing it; singing! What happens when Alya, Nino, and most importantly of all, Adrien, see her? Song-fic? Maybe? This is a one-shot, so don't expect any more updates for this story!


_**Get Back Up Again:**_ _ **(3947 words)**_

That afternoon was action-packed!

Marinette had forgotten her homework at home and had to run back five minutes before first bell to get it back, she was then late because of it, Adrien's hair looked extra soft that day, there was an akuma attack half-way during lunch, and Chat Noir flirted with her the _whole_ time too!

She won't lie; he _is_ charming… _sometimes_.

Marinette would much rather date Adrien than _that_ alley cat any day, though.

Her hand rested on the hidden Ladybug-coloured yo-yo that was secured on her waist. She always kept one with incredibly durability and an extra stretchy and thick string, to make it as close as possible to her Miraculous Ladybug yo-yo. She's never had a need to use it yet, but it was supposed to be used in a situation where she wasn't able to transform. If that was the case, she would have no choice but to use the yo-yo she had as a civilian to protect lives, at least until she could transform.

At least she was prepared! She was seventy percent sure that a certain black cat wasn't as prepared as she was.

Marinette was exhausted! So much had happened and she felt like she was going to collapse right in the middle of the street.

School had just ended and she was walking back home, hoping that nothing of importance would happen for the rest of the day. She had a physics test next week and had to revise as much as possible for the next seven days, but to be honest, she felt like acing tests had kind of lost their significance if she risks her like every day as a crime-fighting superheroine.

Strolling down the street, she breathed heavily as she forced her legs to place one foot in front of the other.

She couldn't _believe_ the number of things that had happened that day. All she wanted to do at that moment was just lie down on her bed and think about absolutely nothing for the rest of the da- no! Week! _Nothing_!

Marinette sighed miserably.

She then realised where she had gone when she stopped walking in front of a large theatre in the busy city.

It was rather run down but she loved it anyway. It was gorgeous, she thought, as she walked slowly inside the building so as not to disrupt the others that could possibly be there. Who would be? It was abandoned, really. The man who owned it was very old and couldn't possibly manage such an incredible and busy location.

The walls were a light beige with one thick, large stripe of red running horizontally through the entire hallways. The floors were a polished wooden texture, which she thought were a beautiful touch.

The windows were in good shape, though every once in a while, there was a crack or two in one of them. She really didn't mind though. It gave it character, and a story. What's not to love?

 _Nothing_!

The actual stage was in a room with large windows, with blinds that could be opened or closed, depending on the kind of performance, or the time of day. The stage was the same polished wood texture as the floor in the hallways, and the walls were a dreary black, hardly noticeable. It was so that boards with the correct texture or scene could be propped up to give off the feel of whatever was happening during the performance or whatever was taking place in the magnificent theatre.

And outside, oh! There was the most gorgeous garden that Marinette had ever seen! It had mazes and rows and columns of all kinds of plants, with birds and insects flying around. The flowers almost seemed to sparkle in the mid-afternoon sun.

They definitely smelled as beautiful as they looked as well. Marinette took a deep breath in, enjoying herself immensely.

The black-haired teenager always loved coming here ever since it became abandoned, about two years ago. She came almost every day to practice her singing and dancing. Even though she was incredibly modest, even she could tell that she was very talented at the arts, and every kind too.

She even knew how to play the trumpet, violin, guitar, and piano, since she had a lot of free time with her parents always being busy at the bakery.

Then, though, she had been gifted the Ladybug ear-rings, and had become Ladybug, along with another boy that she most likely didn't know becoming Chat Noir. She had lost her free time, most of it was spent catching up on homework or sleep, and of course, at the akuma attacks protecting Paris and its people.

Marinette sighed.

It was now half five; she had been here for almost an hour and her family and friends would be worried about her by know.

She was supposed to meet up with Alya and Nino at around five, right in front of her bakery. Nothing important, just to talk. It was nearing the end of the school year, only a month or two left before the summer break, and the teachers were piling on the homework and rules, suffocating the students with silence and mountains of work, making it difficult to breathe for all of the students.

The three friends just wanted to talk peacefully with no pressure from school or home interrupting them from enjoying themselves. What Marinette didn't know, though, was that Alya and Nino were planning on dragging Adrien along so that the black-haired girl would have to react to his presence.

Alas, not everything goes to plan.

 _ **(-Line break!-)**_

"Where is she?" the redhead asked furiously, though that anger quickly transformed itself into worry as if it had its own miraculous.

"Alya, babe. Don't worry! Marinette is tougher than she looks," Nino assured his girlfriend, while simultaneously rubbing a spot in his side, a painful expression on his face, wincing with the look of someone remembering something from a memory.

Adrien raised an eyebrow, _'Could Marinette, that timid little mouse, really be that strong? Maybe, I still remember how sassy and confident she is whenever I visit her as Chat Noir.'_

Taking Nino's hint, especially since he could see how much pain Nino was in when dealing with the feisty little black-haired girl, Adrien began to walk around to look for Marinette.

"Bro? What are you doing?" Nino called out from a few metres away.

"I'm looking for Marinette. She's not with us, or at her house, or at school! Maybe she's hurt, or there was a secret akuma that we don't know about and she's trapped somewhere!" he called back quickly, looking around at a rapid pace, just in case she really couldn't hold her own.

Adrien saw Alya nod quickly to his words in the corner of his eye, not really paying attention to them as he ran down the street on the hunt for a certain pig-tailed student.

"Do you think she's okay?" he heard Alya ask Nino, the two of them were running behind Adrien, also worried for their best-friend.

"Yeah, she has to be, right? She's always alright, I don't know how, but she manages to get out of bad situations all of the time," Nino told the other two, speaking from experience, that look on his face when people have a hard time remembering or understanding memories.

"I know, right? It's like she has a good luck charm or something!" Alya exclaimed, and Nino chuckled at her words, though Adrien stopped sprinting suddenly, making the other two bump into him.

The three friends all came crashing down at the collision, "What was that for?!" Alya questioned loudly.

Adrien, unfazed by her threatening and furious glare (Nino was next to tears on the ground, unmoving from fear), stood quickly and responded, "You said good luck charm. It reminded me of Ladybug and Chat Noir. Sorry, I'm just really worried that a secret akuma is running around and that it's trapping innocent civilians."

Alya's furious glare dimmed quite bit and apologised for her short temper.

Adrien didn't seem to mind though, and the three friends kept running on the hunt for their missing classmate.

Eventually, it was about twenty to five, and the three were leaning on the wall of some old building or another to rest. They had been running most of the time with some breaks in between.

They were wondering where Marinette could possibly be.

All three friends were extremely worried for her, where could she be? They had looked everywhere for the black-haired teenager! Where was she?!

That was when they saw a little moth, the same size and shape as an akuma, but… white! They looked exactly like the little butterflies that Ladybug frees using her yo-yo whenever there is an akuma. Adrien, or rather, _Chat Noir,_ would recognise them anywhere.

"That's a purified akuma!" Alya shouted suddenly. Adrien was grateful, even though Aly wouldn't know, he was just glad that he wouldn't have to point that out.

"Should we follow it?" Nino asked questioningly, looking hopefully in the butterfly's direction. "It could lead us to Marinette."

Though it sounded like a stupid idea, but it made sense in a way. "Maybe? At least it's an idea." The other two nodded and the three friends followed the white butterfly into the old and abandoned building that they were leaning on.

Its wings were glittering in the sunlight, the wings almost appeared translucent, with a reflective material too, since the sunlight was getting in their eyes every few seconds.

When they finally entered the building, they realised that it looked surprisingly new and clean, at least compared to the outside of it. The colour scheme seemed very well thought-out and matched the feel of the building very well, Adrien thought.

The butterfly's wings were now reflecting the glow of the lights on the walls and the ceiling.

"Can you see anything that would say if Mari was here?" Adrien whispered. He didn't know why he spoke so quietly, but felt like he should respect the building. Alya and Nino weren't talking, and their footsteps were barely making a sound, apparently thinking the same way.

"No. Oh, I hope she is okay," Alya rushed out in one breath, and started walking faster down the corridor.

"Should we keep going, or do we turn back?" Nino wondered out loud, walking slower than the other two. He must really have faith that Marinette was strong enough to hold her own. Adrien couldn't help it, he always saw her as… well, delicate. And fragile. A blushing and stuttering mess that snuck it's way into his heart.

He breathed in at that thought. _'My heart?'_ he thought worriedly. _'No, that can't be right. I love Ladybug and I'll never stop, so 'liking' Mari is just going to create a big mess that I really shouldn't step into.'_ He nodded at his decision, he wasn't going to cause heartbreak for all three of them, that was just wrong.

Nino raised an eyebrow at the nod but Alya didn't notice. "We should probably keep going, just in case. Imagine if she was here the whole time and we went back now," Alya whispered, which was lucky too, or else they wouldn't have noticed the fluttering of more wings. The little butterfly was soon joined by some more, creating an entire… what was a group of butterflies called? Nino asked that very question.

"Well, the actual name for a group of butterflies is a kaleidoscope, though most people call it a swarm or a rabble. Sometimes, they're even called an army, which is dumb, because they're _butterflies_ ," Adrien answered at once.

Nino and Alya stared at him as if he had just killed a man. "What?"

"First of all, why do you even know that?" Nino questioned with a raised eyebrow, curiosity present in his face. Adrien just shrugged, unsure how to answer.

Alya just rolled her eyes, "Second of all, you do realise that akumas are butterflies, right?"

The blonde widened his eyes, "Oh, guess I forgot about that."

Alya and Nino chuckled at his completely embarrassed expression. "Don't worry, bro. It's easy to forget about the… well, pretty much superpowered war going on when Nette is missing."

Adrien nodded as the three friends continued down the corridor.

"I wonder why there are so many butterflies now," Alya pondered.

"Maybe Mari really is here, and were getting close," Adrien hoped, he was rather worried about the short black-haired girl.

"Let's keep going then, "Nino added, and the group soon fell into silence. It was like a maze in the old abandoned building, the corridor had many doors leading off of it which were corridors themselves, though luckily, there were worn down signs on these. From the signs, Adrien could deduct that the abandoned building must have been a theatre at some point.

Eventually, they reached the main stage.

There, the butterflies were so large in number that you couldn't see past them. They were all floating there, though the majority were facing a black door which blended in with the black walls very well; Adrien wouldn't have been able to see it without the butterflies' help.

"Do you think Marinette's there?" Alya whispered with hope.

Adrien nodded at her words, a similar expression on his face, as did Nino. Marinette mattered a lot to all of them.

Adrien walked forward first, and pushed open the doors, where there was a large and fruitful garden.

"It's gorgeous," Alya gasped in wonder. Nino's eyes widened as he walked out of the building.

"Did you know that this was here?" Adrien asked the two others, but only received shakes of the head in the negative.

They wandered around for a couple of minutes, until they saw the massive kaleidoscope of butterflies flying down one of the paths. They were very discreet, though. They were split up into small groups, and were heading down different paths, though their destination was the same.

Informing his friends of his discovery, the three followed the butterfly horde, which gradually headed towards the centre of the gardens.

He then spotted a black pigtail through the butterflies that they were following, and alerted his friends in silence, in case something bad happened and Marinette wanted to be alone.

 _ **(-Line break!-)**_

Marinette sighed peacefully.

It wasn't every day that she could just sit down without worrying about homework or a surprise akuma attack.

She had brought out an acoustic guitar to play when she decided to stop walking about. Eventually, that time came. It was about a quarter to six, and Marinette couldn't care less. She didn't care if her parents were worried, if her friends were annoyed, if Hawkmoth was confused about Ladybug's disappearance. She had wanted some alone time for ages, and now that she finally had it, she wasn't about to let it go.

That was when she noticed the soft fluttering of wings in front of her.

She sighed once more, and this time wasn't so happy.

Little white butterflies, purified akumas, had been following her since day one, and the number increased by one after the end of every akuma attack. It seemed like the butterflies had a strange attraction to her, and could always tell where she was. She had collected a rather large amount, seeing as they could fill her bedroom. It had been about two years or so since she had become Ladybug.

While she found them annoying at first - since people could even think that she was Hawkmoth if they saw her with them - she had grown to enjoy their permanent presence.

At least she was never alone, even if Tikki was with her 24/7. The more the merrier, right?

Marinette had always thought that the butterflies were grateful for purifying them and wanted to make it up to her.

Anyways, the butterflies always enjoyed her singing, she discovered a few weeks ago. Though she hardly found the time to do so, today might be their lucky day. Her life was devoted to stopping these things frim turning evil, might as well do it with her singing.

Marinette cleared her throat and thought long and hard about the song she was going to sing.

It would be preferable if she could play it on her guitar, and she really wanted to _connect_ with the song, since it made it so much more passionate and enjoyable if that was the case.

Finally having chosen a song, she stood up, since she had sat down on a little white bench at the edge of the centre of the gardens. She walked to the middle of the clear area, and began to play. Finally, she began to sing, directing the singing to the ever growing amount of butterflies in front of her and around her.

Before she began singing, she stopped playing the guitar, needing to feel the song before she could play it, though she did dance along.

She did it so often that she was pretty certain that she had an entire choreography worked out for the song.

The song was called _'Get Back Up Again,'_ from DreamWorks' _'Trolls'._

She had sung the song before, many times. She liked the silliness and the clumsiness - and the optimism too – of the song.

She was practically Princess Poppy with black hair!

Even Chat Noir called her by the signature nickname he made for her: 'Princess'. And she wore pink clothes, though she personally thought that she was a lot more fashionable than Poppy, but it didn't matter, they had the same personality in a way; always wanting to save people.

Marinette had to admit that the lyrics to the song were pretty much spot on. The sky was a gorgeous sky-blue, and she was surrounded by a… what was a group of butterflies called? She'd have to search it up later.

Yes, this song was perfectly optimistic, like she was most of the time, though she did have her gloomy days, but doesn't everybody?

She picked up her guitar from where she had placed it on the bench and began to play when the chorus came up while still dancing, though her moves were constricted and limited by her hands being taken up.

She laughed and put down the guitar once more, continuing her thought out dance moves with flexibility and gracefulness.

Marinette grinned and laughed and smiled and giggled. Dancing and singing always brought up her mood, even if it was a sad song. Still, this one was as happy as they can get, and it was only another reason for her to be so gleeful.

She then started to bend her knees slightly and her acting morphed into some sort of actual worry on the part when Poppy is being slightly negative, worried about if she had made the wrong decision.

She was honestly crying at that point; whether it be out of stress, miserableness, happiness, or passion, she didn't know. What she did know was that she _was_ crying, as she could feel the cool rivers of water flowing gently down her face.

Every day, she wondered if she would be lucky enough to see the next morning, and Marinette felt like she was honestly alive just by sheer will at this point.

This time, when the second chorus came up, instead of picking up her guitar, she reached for her yo-yo at her waist. Her eyes were closed, and she was going purely off of instinct.

She opened her eyes while swinging the yo-yo around, though. She didn't want to hurt the plants in the gardens. The butterflies were chasing after the yo-yo, maybe they wanted to be purified again? Marinette chuckled in her head.

' _That was a ridiculous thought,'_ she giggled.

The second the song had ended, Marinette fell to the floor, completely out of breath.

Her eyes were closed and she didn't feel like opening them any time soon. They song had really taken out a chunk of her already depleted energy, and she was now fully and completely exhausted.

Marinette felt arms wrapping around her, and lifting her up. Grudgingly, she opened her still teary eyes.

"Adrien?" she whispered in shock.

"Marinette? Are you okay? What were you doing?" he rushed, with no intention of stopping, "Did you hurt yourself? Does your throat feel sore? Can I do anything? Where did you learn to do that? Why does that kaleidoscope of butterflies-"

"Woah, woah, woah! Hold up! First of all, a group of butterflies is a kaleidoscope?" Marinette asked, obviously fine.

She was now fully awake and aware of her surroundings. He laughed and nodded, "Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine," Marinette answered, more worried about them finding out that she's Ladybug than her fear of talking to her crush. Adrien nodded, surprised at her use of… well, _words_.

"Marinette?" Alya asked.

Marinette jumped up from her spot from the floor and whipped her head around, seeing Alya and Nino with eyes as wide as saucers, if paws-ible. Adrien stood up behind her. "Uh, hey Alya."

"Are you… uh…" Nino began.

"Ladybug. Are you Ladybug?" Alya finished for him after a few seconds since her boyfriend was clearly unable to finish.

"Umm, surprise?" Marinette told them with a shrug.

Adrien's eyes grew even _bigger_ than saucers, if that was even paws-ible. **(A/N: Sorry, I love that line. It's just so…** _ **catty**_ **!)**

"You… yo-your…?" he stammered.

"Yes, I'm… Ladybug," Marinette sighed, and took in a deep breath. "I'm sorry I never told you three. I couldn't tell anyone, or you'd all be in danger. Even more than you already are."

Alya took a moment but nodded at her words, "It _is_ dangerous, we understand, Marinette."

Nino nodded along with her, but Adrien just stood there, frozen. After a few seconds though, he snapped out of it. "It's fine, Mari. Anyways, I'm in just as much danger as you."

Alya raised an eyebrow, "Okay, we get that you're a model, pretty boy. But you're not _that_ special."

He only rolled his eyes at her words, "That's not it! It's because I'm-"

"Chat Noir!" spoke a voice that the four friends, other than Marinette, had never heard before. Marinette opened her little bag and a kwami floated out.

Quickly, a black kwami shot out of Adrien's shirt and hugged Tikki, the ladybug kwami.

Marinette awwed, Adrien's eyes widened in surprise, and Alya and Nino were just confused. Just plain confused.

Realising this, Marinette explained the kwamis to the two.

"So, they help you transform?" Alya questioned once Marinette had finished explaining all about the kwamis.

"And they are thousands of years old?" Nino asked after her. Plagg, the black cat kwami, flew towards them and smirked, "Sure are, kid."

"Hey, I thought that was _my_ nickname!" Adrien shouted from where he and Tikki were getting to know eachother.

"Of course that's not it, kid! My nickname for you's Twinkle Toes!" Plagg shot back **(A/N: "We have resorted to eating our horses")** , smirk firmly in place.

Adrien blushed with embarrassment and Marinette shot him a smile, which he returned.

She grinned at him. She didn't know what to do about them knowing their identities, including their two other friends. She had always encouraged them to keep it hidden, and then she was a key part to them finding out, but to be honest, she had a wonderful time.

How did such a horrid day turn to something so adventurous? She didn't have the answer, and she didn't think that anyone else did. Oh well.

Marinette couldn't believe that her day had turned out so… miraculous!

 **A/N: And that's all for always! At least with this series. That's right, folks! It's my first one-shot! Wooo! WOOOOOOOO! :D**

 **Okay, okay, I'm a bit excited about it, as you can clearly see. If you understood the reference to Plagg's nickname for Adrien, you're my new best friend, since the only people I know who have already watched that Nickelodeon series is my uncle, and family doesn't count, sometimes. In this case, it doesn't.**

 **I decided to post this now, since I had just finished it just a few minutes ago, and thought that you all might appreciate having two Miraculous Ladybug chapters coming out in less than 24 hours, even if they are from different stories. Whoops!**

 **I'm sorry about the ending. It wasn't very well thought out, and I don't really know how to end it, so be happy with what you got.**

 **This song was** _ **'Get Back up Again'**_ **from** _ **'Trolls'.**_ **I'm sure you know where the title comes from now.** __ **If you read What Baking Can Do (another Miraculous fic), you'll know that I rather like song-fics, so here you go.**

 **Also, I almost never make puns so be proud! And Plagg singing a Hamilton song was an accident which I then turned into an author's note thingy.**

 **Anyways, if you want to tell my anything about this, especially about the reference, then feel free to leave a review, though if you want to be a rebel and go on to another story without reviewing, - that's fine too.**

 **\- It's up to you,**

 **\- To do what you want to do,**

 **\- To get through,**

 **\- Poo.**

 **Hah! Okay, that was my horrible attempt at rhyming and poetry. Don't mind me! :D :D :D**

 **Y'know, if any of you are wondering why the number of words at the beginning of the story is different from this site's number, it is because I don't include the author's note thingy at the end or the title, so really, it is more accurate.**

 **Anyways, enjoy!**


End file.
